Business Storytelling

Every situation deals with a narrative. My communication style is rooted in the philosophy that the story is the single most engaging way to bring about positive change. Each conversation, presentation, quantitative model, and dashboard or report is crafted with the business story as the central element of information exchange. And more effective storytelling means engaging and insight-generating visuals. I have mastered multiple tools – and the knowledge of when to use them – to make the story in any situation as compelling as possible.

In creating my storytelling materials, I often will use, in addition to the standards Excel charts and pivot tables, sophisticated design tools, such as:

• Visio, Lucidchart, Archimate, UML, BPMN, and Mindmapping packages for communicating ideas
• Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for advanced graphic design
• InDesign for infographics, marketing materials, and complex documents
• Dreamweaver, HTML/PHP, SharePoint and various Content Management Systems for web publishing
• Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro for video and motion graphics.

Depending on the need and the context, I have at my disposal a full range of tools for telling the right story in the right way.

For some public-domain examples of business storytelling work I have done, visit here.

Systems Thinking

One of the most powerful sets of thinking tools I have ever encountered falls within the general category of Systems Thinking. Holistic logical processes can take on a variety of forms; I have extensively studied many of them in a search for the best approaches to solving difficult business problems. Along the way, I have been fortunate enough to have found several Systems Thinking methods that I have seen make tremendous impacts on business performance. The ones I have made a permanent part of my business design approach are as follows:

• The Theory of Constraints (Goldratt and Dettmer)
• Interactive Planning (Ackoff and Gharajedaghi)
• Systems Dynamics (Forrester and Senge)
• Various Lean and Six Sigma techniques

Each of these methods has its own unique strengths and situations where that particular method best fits. But the common thread in all of these techniques is in the area of focus. Systems thinking in general holds that the throughput of a system can be dramatically changed by paying attention to a modest number of factors. Find the right factors, and improvement can follow. Furthermore, treat the entire organization as a whole. Some of the most detrimental actions within companies stem from decisions that locally optimize (within a department, for example) at the expense of the entire operation. These methods ensure that the proper attention is paid to the things that count the most.

Versatility and Connected Experience

My breadth of experience has some unique elements. In retrospect, I am able to connect all of the different eras and activities in my career into a cohesive skillset. I started as a financial analyst and a banker, where I not only learned sophisticated financial modeling, I also wrote line-of-business applications that helped the entire department become more efficient and effective. After spending time as a relationship banker, I moved into Mergers and Acquisitions for an energy company, where I further developed my analysis skills and gained insight into various departments through designing performance management processes, tools, techniques, and approaches. This led me to overall firm strategy, advising the C-suite on such topics as competitive position, valuation and likely stock price movements, pro-forma effects of divestitures and acquisitions, and the entry into adjacent lines of business.

From there, I took on executive responsibility of my own, helping to launch an energy company that eventually grew to serve tens of thousands of customers in a few short years. Next I became a consultant to Energy and Utility companies performing a variety of services that drew on my collective experiences.

In short, my financial experience informs my strategy work and forms the nucleus of judging what tactical steps to take (what business architecture to pursue, which products are the most promising, and what kind of cost structure makes the most sense). My breadth of experience is valuable because it is all connected to the same thing: designing the very best companies and parts of companies and using every available perspective to consistently improve the design.

Business Design
Tools and Frameworks

• Complete set of strategy frameworks
• Strategic Finance and M&A techniques
  • Valuation
  • Strategic Fit and Rationale
  • Integration Planning
• Applied microeconomics and economic simulation methods
• Architectural Methods: Archimate, TOGAF & BIZBOK
• Systems Thinking and Holistic Business Improvement Methods
  • Six Sigma/Lean
  • Theory of Constraints
  • Systems Dynamics
  • Interactive Planning

Enterprise Technology
Enablement

• CSC CATALYST, ADM, and other methodologies
  • Requirements
  • Process Re-design
  • Business and Application Architecture
• BPMN 2.0 & UML symbolic languages
• Design of cloud computing / SaaS offerings
• Extensive, direct Big Data experience
• Oracle Data Modeler, Erwin & BPwin
• PMBOK for Project Management
• BIZBOK for Business Architecture
• Kimball warehousing theory
• Offering Management Lifecycle
• Application Architecture Layer and upwards

Analytics and
Business Intelligence

• Deep Experience in Developing Dashboards, Reports, and Queries
• Primary mindeset is to begin BI with what is already available
• Deep data design experience
• Experts in Excel Model development, testing, and deployment to users
• Analytica model development
• Statistics Software (SAS, Minitab)
• PowerBI, Tableau, and other Visualization Packages
• Experience building Sharepoint dashboards
• Data Governance Principles